Definition of "matchlock" [match•lock]

• A gunlock in which powder is ignited by a match. (noun)
• A musket having such a gunlock. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Firing had ceased; to load a matchlock was a long affair, and though the attackers might have divided and come forward in relays with loaded weapons, they would have run the risk of hitting their own friends."
• "A bearded ruffian, whose only costume was a flannel shirt and a pair of seedy check trousers, but whose eye was as keen as a hawk's, and whose shining "matchlock" had seventeen notches [24] along its stock, caught the subaltern's query."
• "They were apparently fairly well supplied with them, of either the "matchlock" or "snaphance""